


Family Don't End With Blood

by Charity_Angel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-22 01:43:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3710173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charity_Angel/pseuds/Charity_Angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Castiel ponders what family truly is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Don't End With Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for challenge #89: Family and posted during the 19th amnesty.

Dean had once told him that family wasn’t all about blood. To Castiel, that had seemed immediately obvious, since he had no blood to be related to his Father and brothers by. But that was too literal an interpretation, he knew. And he did know what Dean meant: the true meaning of Dean’s words had worked their way into his being without him truly realising it. There was no moment of epic realisation, just the slow integration of it into his mind.

Sam and Dean might be Winchesters in name – and it was a name they were proud of – but they were Singers at heart. Bobby Singer had done more to raise them than John Winchester, and he was still looking out for them, still raising them right and scolding them when they did something stupid. Bobby Singer was not a blood relation, but he was their family, their father.

It was the first time that Bobby turned his scowl on Castiel that he realised that he was a Singer too: Bobby had done more to raise Castiel than his own Father ever had. Admittedly, given that Castiel had never met his own Father, that wasn’t entirely difficult, but even so, it was a peculiar realisation. Even stranger was the understanding that this being, so much smaller and younger than him, was giving him a Look that screamed disapproval and disappointment, and it made Castiel want to cower in a corner. He felt tiny under that Look. It made him look away and duck his head in shame.

“I’m sorry, Bobby,” he said, his voice soft and gentle.

The Look softened into something forgiving, something nurturing and perhaps a little proud.

“I know, son. Don’t do it again. You scared the crap out of us.”

“I won’t,” Castiel vowed.

Bobby nodded and turned away to head back to his study. As he went, he gave a soft snort: “Yeah right. I’ll believe that when I see it. I swear: those boys’ll be the death of me. Heart attack, I’d put money on it.”

 

.oOo.

 

Of course, it hadn’t been a heart attack in the end, but even dead Bobby’s soul had still been able to give Cas that Look that made him feel like a fledgling and spill everything. It was strange, but even years after his death, Castiel still considered Bobby to be his father, and still wanted to make him proud more than he wanted to protect Bobby from the truth. He still wanted Bobby’s approval: he wanted the time to sit down and tell Bobby every good thing he had done so that he could earn that look of pride that sustained him even now, in his darkest days.

Dean was absolutely right: family didn’t end with blood, and it didn’t necessarily start there either. It was much more complex than genetics, or even simply being the same species. Gabriel had found himself a family among the pagan gods: Castiel’s family was human, and he still needed them.


End file.
